The VA said that this week’s numbers come from a just-completed
report in which officials attempted to get to the bottom of
recent allegations concerning mismanagement and corruption within
the agency.

Accusations that surfaced last month about the VA propelled the
agency to the national spotlight and quickly exposed evidence
that drew the ire of Americans outraged by the long waits that
veterans have reportedly had to endure in order to receive
treatment. At the height of the scandal, Sec. Eric Shinseki
resigned from his post last month.

“All veterans deserve the best. They earned it,” US
President Barack Obama said late last month.“Last week I said
that if we found misconduct it would be punished, and I meant
it.”

Now further action is expected from the White House upon the
release of news concerning the latest internal VA audit.

According to Reuters, VA investigators looked into 731
federally-managed medical centers from May 12 to June 3, and
found that 76 percent of the patients at those facilities, or
roughly 100,000, have experienced long waits.

Of those, the report found, 57,436 patients had been waiting 90
days or more for an appointment as of May 17, 2014. Additionally,
63,869 patients requested appointments during the last decade
that were ultimately never scheduled.

"VA is moving aggressively to contact these veterans,"
the report reads in part.

Thirteen percent of the agency’s scheduling staff, the audit
found, were trained in methods to alter these appointments.

"In at least two clinics, respondents believed someone else
(not a scheduler) was routinely accessing records and changing
desired dates in order to improve performance measures,” the
audit found.

Sloan Gibson, the acting secretary of the VA, said in a statement
on Monday that the results of the report require the agency to
act swiftly.

"Today, we're providing the details to offer transparency
into the scale of our challenges, and of our system itself,"
he said. "This data shows the extent of the systemic problems
we face, problems that demand immediate actions.”

Gibson, who replaced Shinseki after his resignation was accepted
by Pres. Obama last month, said Monday that the VA has contacted
50,000 veterans so far in an effort to get them off of waiting
lists and into the proper facilities to be treated.